From the age of 18, young people have the right to request euthanasia without parental involvement. Sixteen and seventeen-year-olds do not need parental consent in principle, but their parents must be involved in the decision-making process. Minors may themselves request euthanasia from the age of 12, although the consent of the parents or guardian is mandatory until they reach the age of 16. Penalties vary but may be as much as 12 years in prison for euthanasia and up to 3 years for assisting suicide. If a physician fails to do so, he may be prosecuted. The committee will judge if the physician has taken due care. Every instance of euthanasia and assisted suicide must be reported to 1 of the 5 regional euthanasia review committees. Both forms are covered by the Act and in both cases doctors must fulfil the statutory due care criteria. In assisted suicide, by contrast, the physician supplies the lethal drug but the patient administers it. ![]() In the case of euthanasia, the physician administers a fatal dose of a suitable drug to the patient. Termination of life on request can take two forms. The document constitutes a request to the physician and must contain a clear and unambiguous expression of the patient’s wishes. Such advance directives define the precise circumstances in which the patients concerned would wish euthanasia to be performed. Their best course of action is to discuss the situation they envisage with their family doctor and make a written directive covering those circumstances. Some people feel that they would wish euthanasia to be performed if they ever find themselves in a particular situation which they would now regard as unbearable and offering no prospect of improvement. These guidelines on euthanasia of patients with lowered consciousness do not represent any implicit relaxation of the law they are merely designed to provide guidance for physicians in this difficult situation. This is laid down in guidelines on the subject prepared by the Royal Dutch Medical Association at the request of the Board of Procurators General of the Public Prosecution Office and the Healthcare Inspectorate. If there are still signs of suffering, the doctor may perform euthanasia despite the patient’s lowered consciousness. Sometimes, a patient may lapse into semi-consciousness just before a scheduled euthanasia. Guidelines for euthanasia of semi-conscious patients However, patients have no absolute right to euthanasia and doctors no absolute duty to perform it. They see euthanasia as the only escape from the situation. Their request must be made earnestly and with full conviction. ![]() Requests for euthanasia often come from patients experiencing unbearable suffering with no prospect of improvement. Only then is the physician concerned immune from criminal prosecution. What the law saysĮuthanasia and assisted suicide are legal only if the criteria laid down in the Dutch Termination of Life on Request and Assisted Suicide (Review Procedures) Act are fully observed. Palliative sedation is not a form of euthanasia: the patient is simply rendered unconscious with pain reducing drugs and eventually dies from natural causes. The relevant Dutch legislation also covers physician-assisted suicide (where the physician supplies the drug but the patient administers it). Euthanasia is performed by the attending physician administering a fatal dose of a suitable drug to the patient on his or her express request.
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